DoT Allocated Microwave Spectrum to Reliance Jio as per Norms in 2015

The department of telecom allocated microwave spectrum to Reliance Jio in 2015 and then to Sistema Shyam Teleservices without auction provisionally and in compliance with rules, highly placed government sources said to PTI in response to CAG allegations of wrongdoing. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report tabled in Parliament last week said microwave access (MWA) spectrum was allocated to a telecom operator in 2015 on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis in contravention to the recommendations of a DoT-constituted committee, while 101 applications for microwave spectrum were pending with the government.

The national auditor neither mentioned the name of the company to which the microwave spectrum was allocated nor the loss estimates. MWA spectrum is allocated to telecom operators for short distances to provide mobile services.

“Microwave access spectrum was allocated to Reliance Jio in 2015 and then to Sistema Shyam. The spectrum was allocated provisionally and with condition that they will have to pay market determined rate retrospectively whenever a decision is taken,” a senior government official told PTI.

The official said such spectrum was allocated administratively in the past to incumbent operators as well and in 2012 they did not agree to the new conditions, hence their request for fresh allocation of MWA spectrum was not met.

The official maintained that the stand of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allocating spectrum to Reliance Jio was submitted to the CAG. “MWA to other applicants were not allocated as Supreme Court had cancelled the licence of most of the companies and they did not qualify for spectrum allocation,” the official added.

The Supreme Court had in 2012 struck down FCFS policy in 2G spectrum allocation case of 2008-09 while cancelling 122 telecom permits that were granted spectrum through the process.

The CAG in its report said the DoT constituted a committee in December 2012 to look into the allotment of spectrum in various categories and proposed that spectrum allotment in microwave band to all operators should be done through a market-related process, that is an auction.

“However, in contravention of the committee’s recommendations, allocation of MW access spectrum has been done on FCFS basis till date as was being done for 2G licence and access spectrum till 2009,” the report said.

The then telecom minister and present Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said every spectrum was allocated through auction during his tenure and he will look into the anomalies pointed out by the CAG in spectrum allocation in 2015.

Reported By

Must Read

Reliance Jio, as promised last month, today started taking registrations for its optical fibre based fixed-line broadband services which it's going to kick start in the coming days. The Mukesh Ambani-owned telco will take registrations now, and the gigabit broadband

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (Jio) announced today that it has created a world record by crossing 16 Million subscribers in its first month of operations (September, 2016). Jio which launched commercial operations on 5th September has achieved this growth faster

Reliance Jio’s 4G LTE small cell network comprising thousands of Airspan small cells is carrying more than 350 TB of data and terminating more than five million VoLTE calls daily, the company said in a statement. The 4G entrant, which

Recent News

Samsung is all set to launch Galaxy S10 series of phones on February 20 right before Mobile World Congress which kicks off a week later. As far as the rumours are concerned, Samsung is likely to launch three phones under

Vodafone after its merger with Idea Cellular has definitely increased its capex and is moving ahead with intensity to counter the competition in the telecom playing field. However, the introduction of the minimum recharge plans has triggered a subscriber fallout

Last year Asus debuted one of its most prominent offerings in India, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1. The phone went on to witness massive sales and became one of the highest selling mid-range smartphones in India. Asus has also

Leave a Reply

14 Comments on "DoT Allocated Microwave Spectrum to Reliance Jio as per Norms in 2015"

Sort by:
newest |
oldest

Linto

January 14, 2019 11:08 pm 11:08 PM

jio a big scam and will burst like a bubble.. i will never use it…

ReplyHide Replies ∧

Thamilan daa

January 14, 2019 6:06 pm 6:06 PM

I am against jio only because of worst coverage. Why is the senseless dot giviving spectrum to the heartless jio which has deliberately reduced the signal strength at all the places?.

ReplyHide Replies ∧

Rinu

January 14, 2019 10:40 pm 10:40 PM

It’s true because here all companies have their towers on the same building but only Jio’s signal is weak.

ReplyHide Replies ∧

Stark

January 14, 2019 8:28 pm 8:28 PM

Are you sure Jio has reduced signal strength? If it is so, why?

ReplyHide Replies ∧

Thamilan daa

January 15, 2019 7:33 am 7:33 AM

Yes. The jio 2300 MHz signal strength within the city limit inside the open buildings is absent / very less compared to the 2300 MHz of airtel and 4G 2100 MHz of vodafone.

The signal strength of 850 and 1800 MHz of jio at remote places is always above -100 dBm.

Come to Tiruchengodu. I can prove it.

Reply

SC-Kanchrapara (Grater Kolkata)

January 15, 2019 11:38 am 11:38 AM

It is absolutely true. Jio’s 2300 MHz signal strength is very poor in Kolkata suburban areas compared to villages. In my residence Jio’s speed is very low and after complaining several times, they confirmed that they can’t give any date to improve signal and service quality. In peak hours average speed is only 0.02 Mbps. It is also true that they are installing and covering so many areas where airtel failed in last 20 years but in cities and suburban areas they failed to give minimum 3g like speed and indoor coverage. If airtel could give proper 4g coverage then… Read more »

Reply

Thamilan daa

January 15, 2019 4:08 pm 4:08 PM

SC :
How is airtel 4G 2300 MHz coverage there?.

Reply

SC-Kanchrapara (Grater Kolkata)

January 15, 2019 10:38 pm 10:38 PM

Very weak.

Reply

Amit, Kolkata Circle

January 15, 2019 1:57 am 1:57 AM

Yes, same here. Jio has lowered its transmission power. I am really eager to know the reason.

Reply

Stark

January 15, 2019 9:37 am 9:37 AM

Maybe jio cant raise prices now so it is resorting to cost cutting

Reply

Aniruddha Dhar|Santragachi|West Bengal

January 17, 2019 5:47 pm 5:47 PM

No the only reason behind this is load per tower is extreme. So they are lowering the power to keep feeding only handful of customers with reasonable speed. Outside of this good zone rsrp, rsrq, sinr and rssi is pathetic and keeps switching between multiple eNBs. They need more spectrum or more tower density unfortunately both of which they couldn’t get at this time. Hence outside a tower’s good zone situation is pathetic. I’m one of those unfortunate customer. In my house’s first floor my phone usually latches on to weak 2300 mhz maximum time and keeps switching between multiple… Read more »